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Chamber Ballet at the Philharmonie

Holm Birkholz, who has been a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker for many years, is not only a dedicated violinist but also a composer. He finds his experiences as an orchestral musician just as inspiring as Japanese culture, whose spirituality decisively shapes his music. His dance suite “Blossom Dreams – Four Seasons”, which he will present together with the dancer Emi Hariyama at this portrait concert, leads visually and musically through the Japanese seasons.

Holm Birkholz – Solo Violin and Bells

Emi Hariyama – Dance and Choreographer

A Portrait of Holm Birkholz – Blossom Dreams

Holm Birkholz
Mandala (2n Version for solo violin and bell in d’, 2012) commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation

“It’s always a wonderful feeling for me as a 1/128 particle of this great musical ensemble to be able to experience how our individual characters achieve a collective vibration when we make music on stage and become completely at one with the music.” Holm Birkholz has been a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1982 – a time period that has given the violinist and composer more than three decades of inspiration: “Besides the great artistic impressions in the midst of this unique orchestra sound, I was strongly shaped by many years working jointly with the first concertmaster Toru Yasunaga, for whom I was able to write many pieces and through whom I was afforded intense access to Japanese (and Asian) civilisation, which made a lasting impression on me and my musical language.”

Toru Yasunaga, who left the Berlin Philharmonic in 2009, also introduced Holm Birkholz to the internationally renowned dancer Emi Hariyama, who can be experienced in this portrait concert as well with works commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation. The evening will kick off with excerpts from Birkholz’s revised Mandala cycle for solo violin and bell in d, premiered when leave was taken from Toru Yasunaga in the Chamber Music Hall. There follows the dance suite Blütenträume [Blossom Dreams] for solo dance, solo violin and bells in f and d, leading listeners musically through the Japanese seasons, starting with springlike Cherry Blossom Dreams, to Lotus Flowers in the Heat of Summer and Chrysanthemums in the Fall Sun to Plum Blossoms in Snow.